In the early days of the Obama White House, nearly two-thirds of Obama’s senior staffers and advisors were men. The Washington Post reports that the “women complained of having to elbow their way into important meetings. And when they got in, their voices were sometimes ignored.”

So, the women of the Obama White House banded together and sketched out a strategy that would effectively force their male colleagues to listen to them. They called it “amplification,” a simple but brilliant approach that women across the workplace should adopt. According to the Post, when one woman made a point, the other women in the room would reiterate the idea and credit the initial speaker. It not only made the men in the room hear what their female colleagues were saying but prevented them from taking credit for their ideas.